Vista Live same pricing as Xbox Live

[carocat]

While Microsoft was quite quiet about Live for Windows Vista, today during a press event prior to the Game Developers Conference the company revealed to Game Informer Online the exact pricing structure for the service. Live for Windows Vista will actually be the same exact price for Vista as it is for the Xbox 360. Just like with the Xbox 360 there will be a free Silver package as well as a Gold package which retails for $49.99 for a year subscription, $7.99 for one month, and $19.99 for three months.

Good news for gamers who already have an Xbox Live Gold Membership ? you?ve already subscribed. Your Live membership works on the Xbox, Xbox 360, and Live for Windows. Your gamer tag and achievements will be used across both Xbox and Vista PCs. Upcoming Vista games like Halo 2 and some exclusive Vista casual games will include achievements and will be able to add to your gamer score.
Source (http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/exeres/00401D0E-110B-4260-B579-46A1C89295FE.htm)

Pretty much as I expected. Good news that you can use your membership on both though.

[Azure]

I can see this lasting about as long as a bowl of warm mayonnaise in direct sunlight.

[carocat]

What are the alternatives? Not playing the games at all?

[Azure]

Yeah, that will be the alternative for me, MS don't make THAT many games.

I am not paying them ?40 a year for some piece of **** gamer card and some laughable "Acheivments". They can go **** a nut. And I expect and hope any PC gamer would take the same stance.

[zcaliber]

I can't see how it's a good thing cat. PC gamers have been playing online for free since the ****ing big bang, this will crash and burn

[carocat]

I don't it's a good thing, it's just what I expected. The only thing I think is good about it is that you don't need to have 2 seperate accounts [on the 360 and the PC] which would've been outrageous if that was the case.

Effectively I don't really care as such. I don't play games on my PC and I don't see myself do that within the next few years.

MS are a huge corporation, they want to make money and that's how they do it. What are the alternatives though, realistically? You can stop playing the games and boycott MS. Does boycott really work in the gaming world? When has it ever worked? [I'm not too sure on this, so tell me if there has been a case of it working and actually making a difference]

[Azure]

People will rip the games, it doesnt matter WHAT you do to encrypt and protect games or systems, on a platform like the PC there is no defense to be had, inside a month poeple will be playing the pay to play games on free alternatives quite merrily.

[Spindryer]

Trouble is PC gamers are not as stupid as Console gamers. MS will sufer for this and i for one be giving them ANOTHER 40 quid a year.

[quickshot89]

Trouble is PC gamers are not as stupid as Console gamers. MS will sufer for this and i for one be giving them ANOTHER 40 quid a year.

but because you already have a live account spin, you only pay for 1 account on both systems

[Azure]

It is bullshit. The only way this would ever be worthwhile is if they provided dedicated servers for your money which we all know is about as likely to happen as Quickshot realising that PMS are tards.

[zcaliber]

What are the alternatives though, realistically?
drum roll please.... .... .... .... .... .... ....SILVER ACCOUNT!!!

The alternative is what we have been doing since the beginning of time, play on whichever server we want

[kurosaki7]

Yeah Microsoft can stuff that, i think i will stick to the better games that are already free to play online, ?40 is ridiculous to pay yearly for LIVE as you get nothing for it, even more so from a PC perspective. Like Caliber said, it will crash and burn as no one on a PC is stupid enough to pay for a service thats offers less than what is already being offered for free.

[Chet Webley]

....we all know is about as likely to happen as Quickshot realising that PMS are tards.

nice. like your "two birds with one stone" insult. *stands up and claps* :D

[Pirate Balloon]

People will rip the games, it doesnt matter WHAT you do to encrypt and protect games or systems, on a platform like the PC there is no defense to be had, inside a month poeple will be playing the pay to play games on free alternatives quite merrily.Yeah, Steam was considered un-piratable, but look at it now, the exact same will happen here. not to mention the amount of cheating and hacking etc will rise as it is much easier to to on a PC.

[Mazzy]

This is a BONUS to anyone who is paying for live on the box, your allready paying and now there bringing you gamertag to PC games, FOR FREE :D !!! it should piss off every pc gamer out there who dont have an xbox, but come on, we made the choice of paying, im sure alot of PC gamers will do the same, and thus makeing M$ alot more money.

its a good thing there trying to do this, dont you hate playing team games like BF2 and you can only talk to people on teamspeak ? so theres only you and a mate there, and the rest of the team does what the **** they want. now with M$ bringing live to PC, there will be a universal setup where all game devs will NEED to include voice and frineds list so you know where your friends are and can go join them.

[quickshot89]

This is a BONUS to anyone who is paying for live on the box, your allready paying and now there bringing you gamertag to PC games, FOR FREE :D !!! it should piss off every pc gamer out there who dont have an xbox, but come on, we made the choice of paying, im sure alot of PC gamers will do the same, and thus makeing M$ alot more money.

its a good thing there trying to do this, dont you hate playing team games like BF2 and you can only talk to people on teamspeak ? so theres only you and a mate there, and the rest of the team does what the **** they want. now with M$ bringing live to PC, there will be a universal setup where all game devs will NEED to include voice and frineds list so you know where your friends are and can go join them.

thats the thing, id rather have 1 unified friends list where i know where everyone is, than one on xfire, one live, heck, even msn could be linked to your GT etc

[Spindryer]

I would rather MS shove this idea up there ass. atm on Halo CE on the PC i can go in and out of games as i please and choose what server i play on and who i play with. I can be in a clan and take part in clan matches and all of this costs me ........ F - A ! , how could they possible justify ?40

[Mazzy]

yes thats if your ONLY a pc gamer. this is a HUGE plus for us with an xbox already and a PC gamer.

[Spindryer]

Why is it a plus? Do you think recording stats on a profile is worth ?40 a year ? as everything else is FREE for a PC gamer.

[Azure]

I dunno James, thinking about it I do kinda think that this here is worth ?40... :rolleyes:

[Mazzy]

your damn right :D.

no its not worth 40 quid. i never have paid 40 quid for live anyway. but the point is im paying the subscription to live anyway, and M$ are putting it on the pc, so im getting it as an added extra. now if thats not a good deal, i dont know what is. pc gameing is free, and will continue for me anyway, to be free. im paying for live, which is a great service and its better than the rest.

[carocat]

your damn right :D.

no its not worth 40 quid. i never have paid 40 quid for live anyway. but the point is im paying the subscription to live anyway, and M$ are putting it on the pc, so im getting it as an added extra. now if thats not a good deal, i dont know what is. pc gameing is free, and will continue for me anyway, to be free. im paying for live, which is a great service and its better than the rest.
How have you never paid 40 quid for live?

[Mazzy]

you gota dig out the bargins.

[Spindryer]

How have you never paid 40 quid for live?

Ebay = 23 quid

I'm paying for live, which is a great service and its better than the rest.

And what other serves are there Mazzy that you compare XBL too ? I would love to know as the ONLY reason I'm paying my $40 a year is because i HAVE to so i can play Multi-player over the net, which i think is disgusting as its always been FREE to do so on PC games.

[Azure]

Id be interested to know what "service" you get as well.

Hosting is done on your own console majority of the time, uses your bandwidth to search...

You get demos and trailers for free on silver along with stat tracking etc. There is no real anti cheating going on, you pay for DLC and XBLA...

So at the end of the day your ?40 gets you just the permission to play online during the week, doesn't seem so great to me.

EDIT: This site changes pound signs into question marks... Lame.

[Pirate Balloon]

EDIT: This site changes pound signs into question marks... Lame.And on that note, it also cant display the e with an accent (alt gr and e)

[Mazzy]

im talking about the WII and ps2 service's. id rather pay for this great service for online gameing and friends, than have a free service where i need a friend code to play with my mates, not speak to anyone, and have a totaly random service where each game has its own name and friends list etc.

[Azure]

http://www.salvationinc.org/archives/Ignorant.jpg

[Mazzy]

ive told you this before, ignorance is bliss !

[zcaliber]

Mazzy got self-owned

[Azure]

I don't think you realise Mazzy, but when you say things like that you just set the bar for all your future posts as coming from someone who has no idea what they are talking about and should basically be ignored. If you happily admit to being ignorant and do not mind having your subsequent thoughts ignored then why bother breathing?

Perhaps you are aware of it though, and being stupid in a Quickshothot//Ralph manner instead of just being "plain" stupid is your pick of the day.

[Mazzy]

im aware of your view point on this, and if i was in your position of "i dont have live and im not paying 40quid to play games on my new shiny pc, when ive been playing them for free for 20 years, just because M$ has decided that i should" argument. i also would be very pissed off.

BUT im not, im in the position of "i have live and m$ are bringing it to the pc format so i can enjoy it there also" argument.

Thats why im for this, if im paying, everyone else should pay !

[Azure]

Thats why im for this, if im paying, everyone else should pay !

You are actually insane.

Bush getting re-elected, your grammar, DRM, EULAs that take your card details. All thanks to people like you. I feel quite ill now actually, screw MB.

[Mazzy]

people who play PC games pay alot of money. if you want to be apart of the serious gamers on pc, you need to pay for servers and teamspeak etc, so why do you have a problem with M$ bringing there solution to pc gameing. it wont be for EVERY pc game that will come out. and as ever in life, YOU HAVE A CHOICE !!! pay it, dont pay it. get over it.

[carocat]

can we keep this clean from now on with no more flaming each other? Thanks.

-------------------------------------------------

There are some more people questioning the fact that you have to pay for Xbl and just when the 'console rebellion' will start:

As Xbox Live Everywhere ... Live for Windows starts to bubble up as a topic of conversation, we begin to recognize the absurdity of paying for Xbox Live. Live for Windows will charge the same fees as Xbox Live, but since when did we ever have to pay for easy-to-use matchmaking service on a PC?

Australian site Screen Play asks the same question, "Microsoft has realized that most PC owners certainly won't pay for features they have become accustomed to getting for free, even with the sweeteners of a single Gamertag, Gamerscore and common Friends list. But they are still asking PC owners to pay $80 (Australian) a year just for cross-platform play and match-matching, surely the height of optimism."

Now the question becomes: How long before the console rebellion begins? The PS3 is finally getting its online act together and despite Nintendo's never ending list of online incompetence, we figure they've got to turn it around eventually. When Sony and Nintendo finally get their ducks in a beautiful binary row at no cost to the consumer -- will we really keep paying for Xbox Live?

Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/17/how-much-longer-can-xbox-live-charge-consumers/)

How long can Microsoft keep charging $80 a year for an Xbox Live subscription?

Microsoft has realised that most PC owners certainly won't pay for features they have become accustomed to getting for free, even with the sweeteners of a single Gamertag, Gamerscore and common Friends list. But they are still asking PC owners to pay $80 a year just for cross-platform play and match-matching, surely the height of optimism.

Screen Play expects the take-up of paid subscriptions by PC users will be close to zero, although there will obviously be plenty of 360 owners grateful they can use their Live membership on PC for no extra cost.

What will be more interesting to watch in the coming months is how long 360 console owners will tolerate paying fees for Live when PC and PS3 users get many of the same features for nix.

TheAgeBlogs (http://blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay/archives//005371.html)

[quickshot89]

i really dont see the problem, if you want a quality service, you gotta pay, simple as

[Innes]

yeah but really how do you know its going to be worth it, no one can critisise/praise this move by mcsft until Vista Live is out and has been tested fully on a range of games.

[Mazzy]

if its anything like live, it will be worth it.

[linkofhyrule]

I don't really know what everyone's whining about, you can still play like you usually have for free, even with a unified GT and friends list, the only difference is if you want to play with your mates on 360, you have to pay $4 a month.. That's a service you've never been able to get at all, let alone for free.

[Renegade]

So people here do know that to play games online and join servers with whoever and play exactly as it is now is... STILL FREE WITH LIVE ANYWHERE, right?

****ing hell, who put sandpaper on your tampons??

I think it's ****ing sweet. Got my 360, got my PC, got Xbox Live - it's all good.

[DinnyHoon]

It's a nice bonus for XBL Gold customers, but I wouldnt pay 40 quid a year if I didn't have an Xbox (which is what Microsoft want)

[Renegade]

If it's what they wanted they would have charged you to play online, which they aren't. What they have done is offered the exact same service as X-Fire but with a (IMO) much better interface - like combining MSN Messenger and Xfire. And, they offer it for the exact same price as Xfire (free). Basically, a lot of people are *****ing because it says Microsoft on it, and they are too ****ing nerdy to realise that hating Microsoft stopped being cool about ten years ago.

[zcaliber]

What is with the sudden influx of bad kids on this forum lately? Just because someone brings up a valid point against something you like it doesn't make them haters. This live service on PC is bollocks, it's nothing new, it's just paying for something we already have, I don't care about a ****ing interface or a "gamerscore". Wuhey this game's ****, but I'm just gonna run up and down this stairs 500 times to get my stair climbing award so my gay card says I'm a "pro"!
I'll pass thanks.

[Pirate Balloon]

Dont be hatin' on the xfire. How can you get a better interface than Xfire? It's minimal and offers everything you need without being a bloated peice of turd like MSN. You can get different skins for Xfire, too.

Combining anything with MSN sounds, no wait, is like a bad idea.

[zcaliber]

I actually like MSN, it's good as long as you use this- http://apatch.org/. Takes off all the ads, and you can choose to take off other **** you don't want.

[Pirate Balloon]

I dont mean the msn protocall is bad, i use my msn account all the time. However the interface for MSN is bloated with all kinds of annoying/useless ****. I use Miranda IM to use my msn account :).

I used apatch before i got miranda. Isn't that the one where at the end of the install it asks if you want to learn more about Islam? If so, haha.